1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an object-image displaying apparatus which is capable of composing and displaying an image of a human being, an animal and a building.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been known a so called montage composing apparatus, which is capable of composing an image of a human face in a similar manner in which a montage picture is produced. The montage composing apparatus is provided with a part-pattern memory which stores plural sorts of part patterns of each of face parts, the face parts composing an image of a human face, such as eyes, a nose, a mouth, eyebrows, an outline, a hair style and so on. Further, on the montage composing apparatus are installed a part-designating switch for designating a face part and a part-pattern selecting key for selecting one of a plurality of part patterns of the designated face part, which are operated during the process of composing a portrait or a face montage of a person.
With the above mentioned structure, a face part is selected at first by operation of the part-designating switch to compose a portrait of the person. For example, if an image of eyes in the portrait is composed, the face part xe2x80x9ceyesxe2x80x9d is designated first out of a plurality of face parts by operation of the part-designating switch. Then, one of the part pattern of the designated face part xe2x80x9ceyesxe2x80x9d is displayed on a display device. In place of the first displayed part patterns of the face part xe2x80x9ceyesxe2x80x9d, other part patter of the xe2x80x9ceyesxe2x80x9d is selected and displayed from among the plurality of part-patterns of the xe2x80x9ceyesxe2x80x9d by operation of the part-pattern selecting switch. Further, another part pattern of the xe2x80x9ceyesxe2x80x9d is displayed instead of the last displayed part pattern by the following operation of the part-pattern selecting switch. In this way, a desired part pattern of the xe2x80x9ceyesxe2x80x9d can be selected and displayed on the display device by operation of the part-pattern selecting switch.
When the desired part pattern of the xe2x80x9ceyesxe2x80x9d is determined, other face parts, for example, a face part xe2x80x9cnosexe2x80x9d is selected by operation of the part-designating switch. Then, a part pattern of the face part xe2x80x9cnosexe2x80x9d is displayed on the display device. Another part pattern of the xe2x80x9cnosexe2x80x9d is displayed in place of the first displayed part pattern by operation of the part-pattern selecting switch. A different part pattern of the xe2x80x9cnosexe2x80x9d is successively displayed in place of the last displayed part pattern every operation of the part-pattern selecting switch.
When the desired part pattern of the xe2x80x9cnosexe2x80x9d is determined, another face part, for example, a face part xe2x80x9cmouthxe2x80x9d is selected by operation of the part-designating switch.
In this manner, with respect to other face parts: xe2x80x9ceyebrowsxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9coutlinexe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9chair stylexe2x80x9d and so on, similar operations are performed to determine desired part patterns of the individual face parts. Finally, the selected part patterns of the respective face parts are combined to compose the portrait or the face montage of the person.
As described above, in the conventional montage composing apparatus, the part designating switch and the part-pattern selecting switch have to be alternatively operated each time a face part is designated and a relevant part pattern of the designated face part is selected. The conventional montage composing apparatus requires a user to do complex operations, and it will take a great deal of time to complete the portrait accordingly, whereby a desired portrait can not be made easily in a short time.
The present invention has been made to overcome the above mentioned inconvenience involved in the prior art, and has an object to provide an object-image composing apparatus which is capable of composing and displaying a desired image or a montage of an object with easy operation.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided an object-image displaying apparatus which comprises:
part-pattern memory means for storing plural sorts of part patterns, each sort of part patterns representing one of parts which compose an object;
display means for displaying an image of the object;
a plurality of operation switch means disposed at positions corresponding respectively to locations of the parts in an object image to be composed, each for reading out a part pattern of the relevant part from said part-pattern memory means; and
display control means for controlling said display means to display an object image composed of a combination of part patterns read out by said plurality of operation switch means.
According to other aspect of the invention, there is provided an object-image displaying apparatus comprising:
first display means for displaying a plurality of part images composing an image of an object;
part-pattern memory means for storing plural sorts of part patterns, each sort of part patterns representing one of parts which compose an object;
a plurality of operation switch means provided, respectively, in correspondence to the plurality of part images displayed on said first display means, each for reading out a part pattern of the relevant part from said part-pattern memory means; and
second display means to display an object image composed of a combination of part patterns read out by said plurality of operation switch means.
According to further aspect of the invention, there is provided an object-image displaying apparatus comprising:
part-pattern memory means for storing plural sorts of part patterns, each sort of part patterns representing one of parts which compose an object;
first display means for displaying a first object image which is composed of a combination of a plurality of part patterns, the part patterns representing parts composing the object respectively;
a plurality of operation switch means provided respectively in correspondence to the parts composing the object, each for reading out a part pattern of the relevant part from said part-pattern memory means;
part-pattern substituting means for substituting a part pattern read out by said plurality of operation switch means for the relevant part pattern originally included in the first object image displayed on said first display means; and
second display means for displaying a second object image which is composed of a combination of both the part patterns originally included in the first object image and the part patterns substituted by said part-pattern substituting means.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, there is provided an object-image displaying apparatus comprising:
part-pattern memory means for storing plural sorts of part patterns, each sort of part patterns representing one of parts which compose an object;
display means for displaying an object image which is composed of a combination of a plurality of part patterns, the part patterns representing parts composing the object respectively;
a plurality of operation switch means provided on said display means respectively in correspondence to the parts included in the object image displayed on said display means, each for designating a part pattern among a sort of part patterns of the relevant part stored in said part-pattern memory means;
reading means for reading out a part pattern designated by said operation switch means; and
display control means for controlling said display means to display an object image composed of a combination of the part patterns read out by said reading means.
It would be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description of preferred embodiments that the present invention may be modified in various manner and may be applicable to other apparatus.